Inside sources at Ferrari have revealed that the automaker has plans to expand its Maranello production facility in preparation for electric vehicle production.
This third production line at the world-famous Maranello plant will be dedicated to electrified vehicles, both fully electric and hybrid, and will likely also include a battery research and development center, a report from Bloomberg states. It is unclear if this change will result in the announcement of any new EV models. However, it is plausible that the facility could be used to expand its existing hybrid vehicle production.
An official announcement is expected on June 16th with Ferrari’s “Capital Markets Day.” Specifically, CEO Benedetto Vigna is expected to outline the electrification of the brand in the upcoming years. Vigna is certainly an appropriate voice for this announcement due to his previous experience leading STMicroelectronics.
For those who have been following this renowned brand, this may seem like a significant change of course. Previous CEO Louis Camilleri went as far as saying that the brand would not embrace EV technology within his lifetime, yet new changes in executive leadership seem to have changed this attitude.
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Vigna seems to be continuing his shake-up of the brand with this move. Some of the first actions taken under his direction were to restructure his executive team: choosing to hire previous coworkers from STMicroelectronics, establish partnerships with Qualcomm and Apple to aid in UI/UX work, and, as we have seen recently, shift the brand to be more accepting of an EV future.
Ferrari’s Q2 2021 Earnings Call shed the most vivid glimpse of what the Italian automaker’s electrification plans could consist of. As the European Union attempts to shift to 100 percent of its vehicle be electrified in alignment with the 2035 combustion engine ban, Chairman John Elkann said the brand welcomed the limitation on future sales of gas powertrains.
“We see the regulation as welcome,” Elkann said, “because it’s part of an ambitious plan that Europe wants to have, which is important for the world overall. And we believe that what it will do to our organization, and I say this because I’ve seen it, is just making and creating very exciting opportunities in terms of the products that we could be — that we will be thinking of and bringing to market.”
Ferrari’s shift to electric vehicles has gained traction over the past year in a half, especially as news came out that the brand was open to EV production and that the brand was named Morgan Stanley’s “favorite EV stock.” However, Ferrari has yet to produce any EV models.
Despite mounting pressure, Ferrari did not offer to comment on the report.
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